Fall colors, gone for this season
I drove through our valley today and realized that hardly any colorful leaves are left on the trees. The oaks that keep their leaves possibly until spring are all dried up and brown is the dominating color. Leaves from other trees are on the ground, with very little exceptions. Reason enough to post today’s photo, shot already three weeks ago here on top of our rocky bluffs. Time is flying by…
I’m not known as a “people photographer” but when these two young runners passed by I had to make the click. This was a month ago and I walked with our little dog at sunset on the Heritage Trail in the valley below. Due to the wildfires in Colorado, Montana, and California the sun had this hazy, almost dirty appearance and made for interesting back-light on the leaves and logging equipment in the background. While I was still debating with myself if this would be enough for a picture, the girls entered the scene. And suddenly I had a photo that made sense…
Little Maquoketa River, Durango, Iowa
A shot fresh out of camera from this evening. I went down into our Little Maquoketa River Valley to Durango, Iowa, a little village with maybe a dozen homes and the old railroad depot, which is now a bar. The picture was taken from the railroad bridge towards the fork where the Middle Fork Maquoketa River and the Little Maquoketa River meet, only a few miles before their water enters the Mississippi River. The railroad tracks have been removed a long time ago and their path is now a very popular recreation trail, called the Heritage Trail.
I was testing a new 2-stop soft edge graduated neutral density filter and I’m sure after I have more experience with it I will write a little review here in the blog. After the flooding during the last months the river banks don’t look necessarily pretty. A lot of dead wood and debris edges the banks and removing some of the sticks in post process is part of my way to make this landscape picture work. You can see how the GND filter keeps the interesting clouds and the moon on the right hand side intact and leaves good detail and tones in the fore- and middle-ground. Sure, I could lift the dark shadows in post process to reveal more detail in the trees, but this would not benefit the storytelling of this image. This is not a picture with a clear subject but the eye follows the lines of the river, goes to the clouds, maybe the moon, and comes back to the subtle reflections on the water in the foreground. No reason to get lost between dead branches and the mud of the river bank, which are nicely covered in the shadows.
Palm Warbler, Little Maquoketa River Valley near Durango, Iowa --------
It paid back to take the camera and long lens with me while walking our dog down in the Little Maquoketa Valley this morning. First I saw a White-throated Sparrow perfectly placed on a horizontal branch (hence the new photo-button for my bird gallery in the side bar of this website). Shortly after I watched a Palm Warbler foraging in the trees between the abandoned Burton Furnace Road and the Little Maquoketa River near Durango, Iowa. First warbler of the season for me!
The bird in the photo is not tack sharp, just good for a post on the web. Printing this image on a larger scale would not be very pretty. I kinda struggled to handhold the relatively heavy combo of Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600 sports lens, and SB800 speed light. Using the tripod for small birds on the move is not always the best choice, so I left it up on the bluffs at home. Being fast is essential and the only way to solve this conflict is to practice more handholding. Will try tomorrow again…😉
White-throated Sparrow, near Durango, Iowa
I don’t mind to travel and it is an essential part of my job, but it is nice to be home again, especially at this time of the season. It’s getting green here in eastern Iowa, a little earlier than other years, and with the warm weather more birds arrive in our woods.
Yesterday I heard the wonderful sound of the male House Wrens for the first time this spring. He will wake me up in the morning during the next days and weeks by his melodious songs that hopefully will attract a female to one of our nest boxes.
There were several White-throated Sparrows in the grass below our bird feeders and they look never more beautiful than during this time of the year.
In addition a pair of Chipping Sparrows has arrived and unfortunately a Brown-headed Cowbird is around already. They like to lay their eggs into the nest of other birds and that doesn’t always go well for the offspring of the host bird.
Owlet, Great Horned Owl, Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa
After being away for an entire week I had to go back to Mud Lake Park at the Mississippi and find out how the little owlet is doing. Other photographers kept me up to date during my time in California but since I watch this nest since five years I wanted to see it with my own eyes. The young owl has grown tremendously since I saw it the first time peeking out from under the mother’s feathers (Click HERE for the first photo). There is definitely only one owlet in the nest this year (last year we saw two) but it is so nice to see this episode continue.
Little Maquoketa River Valley, Durango, Iowa
I love my little walks during the evening with our dog and with the camera in my hand. Sometimes its all about looking for birds and critters and sometimes I just chase the light. It’s a great way to wind down from a day behind the desk.
Last night when the sun hit the horizon the magic of light unfolded down in the valley. The trees along the Little Maquoketa River received a nice shaft of warm light. The color of the leaves, the bare field in the foreground, and the pale stems of last year’s reeds and grasses, they all help to tell the story about spring in the valley. There are only a few days during the year when this picture can be made, maybe it was only yesterday. Last week the leaves were not really out. Later, when the leaves are darker and fully developed, when the field is planted, and when the sun sets in the northwest, it will not be the same mood anymore. Today I was at the river again but a gray overcast painted already a total different picture. Didn’t even think about to make a click…
